Something that has been on my mind lately as we have been interviewing for interaction designers – there are a lot of designers out there, but not enough thinkers.

This article from Eric Karjaluoto @ smashLab is an exceptional read on what we should be trying to achieve with the title of “designer”.

The point I’m trying to make is that there’s a lot of opportunity for us—as thinkers—to provide great value to our clients. We won’t, however, do this if we continue to hold tightly on to the notion of designers being purely visual practitioners. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: design is about facilitating outcomes, not selecting colors. Selection fromPut Down Your Crayons, April 11th, 2011, Eric Karjaluoto

“Every project and set of interviews reveals surprises, personal revelations, confessions, and sometimes, even tears. It’s key to wallow in and celebrate these moments, not as exceptions, but as important beacons that empower design teams and strategists to transcend confined objectives.”

“Walmart didn’t pursue the question of what customers wanted. Instead, Walmart came up with the answer first, then asked customers to agree to it. [They] ignored customers while attempting to fool stakeholders into thinking that the strategy [was] customer-centered.”

FamilySearch.org is hiring Front-End Developers. We need highly skilled front-end developers who have a passion for creating delightful, useful and usable web experiences, a gift for writing clean, web standard front-end code, and a love for the work of the Lord. It that’s you, then ring our bell. Ring Bell

Jakob Nielsen in an interesting article on how people’s lack of research skills hampers their ability to search effectively—despite or maybe even partially because of intelligent search engines. Highly relevant for me, as I’m working on a couple of search-related projects.